Police said Tuesday that the remains of a man were found in the burned-out wreckage of a minicar in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, late Monday night.
Police said they received a call at 11 p.m. from a passerby reporting that a car was on fire, TBS reported. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to extinguish the fire. The man's body was in the rear seat.
Police said the car is registered to a resident of Odawara City. They have not been able to reach him and believe that he is the victim in the car, in what may be a suicide.
© Japan Today
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spudman
Or a message from the yaks
SquidBert
For some reason I can not understand, burnt out cars always seem to signal suicide to the Japanese police. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would choose this method of suicide other than as a strong statement of protest against something or another, which does not seem to be the case here.
Elbuda Mexicano
This form of suicide does happen in Japan quite a bit, but I saw this back in California too and the guy was just your plain old burnt out surfer dude.
Paul Paul
Definitely murder.
WilliB
The fact that the car was burning would suggest to me that this is something more nefarious than suicide. But that is just me... the J-cops apparently have decided that this is suicide plus self-incineration...
Skeeter27
Sorry I do not buy suicide! People that choose to do suicide are cowards! They do not want to feel pain! Burning alive is painful!!!
FightingViking
Having recently burned the tip of my finger in some oil, I find it very difficult to image anyone could commit suicide by fire! Also, why bother to go sit in the rear seat? He must have either drugged himself or been drugged - nobody would just "sit there" with flames licking at them...
southsakai
Sorry but that statement is just plain wrong. Although I don't condone suicide in any way because one should never take their own life. But calling them cowards is far stretched.
Some folks have mental problems which they cannot control leading them to suicide. Depression. Loss of Family loved family members, pressure of heavy debts and no way out especially when you owe money to the underworld in a country like Japan, it's very difficult to get out of that type of situation because of how society is structured. The farmer up in Fukushima that loved his land so much, after the reactors went off, he took his own life. These are just a few examples.
And different people commit suicide in different ways. Some try to escape without pain - and some just don't care at all as long as they escape.
nico00
Hmm, the research doesn't back up this claim even in the slightest. Overriding the survival instinct is just one obstacle that isn't easy.
BTW, if it was suicide, self-immolation probably wasn't the method, but another burning "something" method that could unintentionally set the car ablaze.
gelendestrasse
I don't know if it was murder or suicide but unless he was driving from the back seat it wasn't an accident....